Post navigation

It’s Opening Day!

Ok, so here in Milwaukee isn’t til tomorrow and MLB wants me to believe that the season opened in Japan a week ago, but I’m telling you its not the same til I’ve got a brat in one hand, a mimosa in another and I’m talking about the Brewers rotation with friends.

But as I write this, I’m watching Verlander and Lester duke it out in Detroit and I’m getting ready to head up to Appleton for Opening Day of the Brewers Single-A affiliate, The Wisconsin TimberRattlers.

Tonight will be the first of three games I’m attending in the next four days because OMGBASEBALLZ!

Maybe it’s overkill and plenty of my friends think I’m nuts, but tomorrow is like my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one. Spring Training ceased to be exciting about two weeks ago and I’ve had ants in my pants ever since. Opening Day has been this beacon at the end of a very busy week for me and we’ve been planning for weeks.

I’m not the only one ready to wax poetic about the wonderfulness that is Opening Day.

For Games Mistress, it starts the reign of her favorite team as defending champions, but it leaves her a little worried and uneasy, too.

I’m actually a little nervous about this particular Opening Day, just because the last time the Cards opened a season as defending champs, Carpenter looked awful from the very first pitch (and was subsequently diagnosed with a season ending shoulder injury) and we lost to the Mets while I was sitting in a room full of Mets fans. This was the opening act for the most soul crushing season I’ve ever experienced — in addition to the on-field mediocrity, we had a player death (Josh Hancock), a freak career ending injury (Juan Encarnacion), and had our only feel-good story derailed when it turned out he’d used HGH (Rick Ankiel). Wow, that was cheerful. Um, at least we already KNOW Carp is hurt this year? And Adam’s back! And Tony’s not! There, I feel better already. Bring on the Matheny era!

I think I’m the only of the Ladies… that’s a nouveau baseball fan. I didn’t grow up going to games and I don’t have lifelong memories of County Stadium. The bf and I started going to games when we started dating in the Summer of 2005 because it was a good date – we had entertainment and built in conversation topics and it wasn’t sitting in a dark theater.

It’s extra-special for me this year because the start of baseball season means that the bf and I are guaranteed a couple of hours together a week. Our schedules have been on opposite paths and while we’re both really excited for baseball, we’re just as excited that we actually get to spend time together.

I love being outside. Living down south for so long lead me to want to go out and enjoy the few short months of good weather Wisconsin has as long as I can enjoy it. There is literally nowhere I’d rather be on a Spring or Summer night than enjoying a game in Miller Park.

And that’s part of the story with baseball, right? Its who you share it with. Many of you have memories of dad taking you to the ballpark, while others love taking their kids. Since I have no memories of going as a kid and my bf only went a few times, baseball is entirely our thing – something we share with some friends, but mostly its the two of us tailgating and going to games together. Hell, we’re forsaking our families on Sunday and tailgating for Easter at Miller Park – something we’ll be doing for the third straight year this year.

Sure, Opening Day usually means amateur hour at the ballpark and many, many drunk people in the parking lot, but once you get past that day, it means I have something to watch pretty much every night for the next 5 months (and hopefully longer.) It means we won’t catch up on TV or see new movies because we’ll have the game on every night from 7-10 pm.

So maybe tomorrow is just going to be Good Friday for some people. For others its just another Friday. But for me, its the start of the best season of the year – Baseball Season!

Like this:

Related

One thought on “It’s Opening Day!”

I can’t help but feel steadily positive despite the elated highs (ANDY’S BACK! AJ’S GONE!) and disappointing lows (Cervelli to AAA, Pineda’s shoulder, WTF Joba?!!) of this spring for my Yankees. Hughes and Grandy have been awesomesauce and we now have an embarrassment of riches in starting pitching. Pineda’s shoulder tendinitis is concerning, but hopefully that sorts itself out. I think it’s a bit premature to call that trade a bust.

I don’t think the AL East is a lock by any stretch, but that’s fine. The season’s more fun to watch when my boys are fighting tooth and nail for the division title.